In the past years, persons with disabilities have often struggled considerably when they travel, especially via commercial air transport airlines. Typically, a passenger with a disability is moved from their own wheelchair to an "aisle chair", which is a specially designed wheelchair to be used in the narrow aisles of an airliner. The passenger is then wheeled to the appropriate row of seats in the aircraft. At this point, the flight attendants, or others on the aircraft, will typically assist in moving the passenger to the assigned seat. This is typically accomplished by having one or more persons grab a leg or legs of the passenger while another lifts under the arms. While this approach has been successfully used countless times to move passengers, it does have several drawbacks.
First of all, the process usually requires physical touching of the passenger's thighs, knees and underarms. To the passenger, this can be an unpleasant and intrusive procedure. Similarly, it often creates anxiety in the flight attendants, who normally are reluctant to physically touch the thighs and underarms of their passengers. These techniques are especially problematic when the passenger has very weak muscles in the thighs, upper arm and shoulder area, as is often the case with polio survivors.
This process is repeated each time the passenger is moved to and from the assigned seat, such as when loading and unloading the aircraft, as well as when the passenger needs to use the restroom on the aircraft.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved systems and methods of moving a passenger with a disability to and from a seated position.